Search: Digital Future

Sunday, 27 January 2013

Firstly,
there are a few things I need to get out of the way. I work for Samsung. I
joined in 2012 and I’m the Regional Marketing Director, looking after digital
marketing and go-to-market initiatives in Asia (I wrote about my awesome new job at Samsung here). This is my personal perspective
as a marketing leader working inside Samsung and paying particular attention to
some of Samsung’s key competitors – including players like Apple, HTC, Nokia,
and RIM/Blackberry. It’s in no way an official company statement, just my personal opinion.

So
with that said, I’m immensely proud to work at Samsung. The company has become
the number 1 brand in Asia, and according to Interbrand’s
global survey Samsung has rocketed to number 9 position. Samsung make amazing products that I
use every day (my 55” SMART TV; my Galaxy SIII, etc.) and has revolutionary
products on the horizon, such as the Ultra Definition TV and the Youm flexible displays that were showcased at CES 2013. The reason I love the brand is related to why I no longer like Apple. Sure,
Apple still produce fantastic products. I’ve owned a Macbook Air, iPhone and
iPad – as well as the ill-conceived Apple TV. Most of their products are great –
so why is Apple losing its cool (as suggested by WSJ’s article: “Has Apple lost its cool to Samsung?”) and what’s changed
with Samsung?

Apple think they know what you want, even when they’re wrong. As Forbes
identified in their article “Five Dangerous Lessons To Learn From Steve Jobs” - Throughout his career, Steve
Jobs famously eschewed market research and relied on his intuition. In a1985
interview with Playboy, he said: “We built [the Mac] for ourselves. We were
the group of people who were going to judge whether it was great or not. We
weren’t going to go out and do market research.” Twelve years later, he told
Business Week: “A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you
show it to them.”

The problem with this approach is that you’re right – until you’re wrong. We’re
now seeing that with iPhone 5. It was a disappointment. Not because it wasn’t a good phone, but
because our needs have moved on. People are demanding larger screens, new
features and open access to new Apps and their own data/App ecosystem. We no
longer live in a world where are needs are dictated to us. With the rise of
social media and the obliteration of barriers between consumers and brands,
this type of attitude is not acceptable.

2.Apple are anti-social and shun media (traditional, PR and social media). This is an area Samsung have embraced with success.

From a marketing standpoint, it’s even more pronounced. For many years
Apple have simply refused to engage with the media and to engage
customers. Apple are one of the few major corporates that are completely anti-social.
They have no Facebook presence, do not engage via Twitter or LinkedIn and
certainly have not opened communication via Weibo or other social networks
in China or in regional communities in other markets across the world.

Samsung on the other hand have invested heavily into engaging with
customers via social media. Using both in-house people and our agency
partners Leo Burnett, Cheil Worldwide and Starcom, Samsung have put in
place Community Management and social customer engagement in 47 countries.

It also helps that social networks, such as Facebook, are now generating some serious ROI for Samsung (in this case, for the launch
of the Galaxy SIII).

3.Winning hearts and minds through marketing – Samsung are
now simply better marketers than others in the consumer electronics category.

As identified in the Wall Street Journal article “Has Apple Lost It’s Cool To Samsung?” Samsung’s “The Next Big Thing” campaign has
struck a chord with consumers.The campaign swayed
consumers including Will Hernandez, an Apple iPhone owner who bought a Samsung
Galaxy S III smartphone about three months ago after seeing Samsung's ads."If you see this stuff on TV enough, it gets you thinking," said Mr.
Hernandez, a 34-year-old resident of Somerville, Mass., who adds that he likes
how his Galaxy has a larger screen than the iPhone. "Now, when someone
gives me an iPhone to look at a picture, it looks so tiny." The marketing onslaught is helping Samsung widen the gap as the market leader.
Samsung is estimated to have held 28% of the global smartphone market last
year, up from 20% a year earlier, according to IHS iSuppli. Apple's share,
meanwhile, isn't rising as quickly, moving to 20.5% in 2012 from 19% a year
earlier.

About Damien Cummings

Damien is a digital disrupter and change agent with over 20 years’ experience in marketing and digital transformation. He is highly awarded, being honoured with “Global Top 50 Digital Marketing Leaders 2016”, “Financial Services Marketer of the Year 2016”, “Digital Marketer of the Year 2016”, "Most Influential CMO 2015" , "Marketing Professional of The Year 2012" and the "Brand Leadership Award 2011".

Damien is currently CEO of Peoplewave a cloud-based HR software company on a mission to make work fair. Before entrepreneurship, he was Global Head of Digital Marketing at Standard Chartered Bank. Prior to this he was Chief Marketing Officer at Philips APAC. Damien has also worked at major global brands such as Samsung, Dell, Ogilvy & Mather, Citibank, Coca-Cola, NRMA and McKinsey & Company.